


David's take

by TheSSChestHair



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: 4x07, episode rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-08 23:31:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12264321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSSChestHair/pseuds/TheSSChestHair
Summary: 4x07: What if it had been David in the place of Snow during the Snow queen? Just a short piece to show what could have been different.





	David's take

She left the station and made her way over to the loft, ready relieve her dad from babysitting duties. She was still pumped up from practicing the spell with Elsa, shaking her hands absentmindedly, trying to rid the buzz coursing through her hands. 

“Ah, here she is!” she heard David announce to the baby in his arms as she entered.

“Baby bro ready?”

“Yeah. Let me just-” he trailed off, throwing a dirty onesie into a hamper across the room. “Okay, diaper bag is over there, milk is on the counter…”

“He sure has a lot of stuff.” she pondered aloud as she picked up the bottle from the counter.

“You think this is a lot, you should have seen your nursery.” David teased.

Emma’s mood changed with her thoughts. A childhood she never got to experience swam through her mind, suddenly hit with jealousy for the newborn clutched in her father’s arms. 

“I think your mother procured almost every baby related object available in the kingdom, and that’s not including the gifts sent from others… Emma, you okay?”

David finally noticed the bubbling bottle in his daughter’s hands and the vacant stare in her eyes.

She shook her thoughts to find David looking at her concerned before also noticing the boiling bottle in her palm. She made it stop abruptly and placed the bottle down, shaking out her hands for good measure.

“Sorry. I must still have a little juice running through my system from practicing.” she brushed it off, somewhat embarrassed. “Here. Is he ready?” she asked, holding out her hands to take Neal from him.

“At least you’ve got a neat way of warming it up again when he needs it.” David chuckled, making light of the incident.

He smiled when his humour had the desired affect and saw Emma’s shoulders sag in relief. He handed Neal over and cupped the back of Emma’s head.

“You sure you’re okay, kiddo?”

Emma rolled her eyes and smiled at his overprotective concern. She’d had foolish thoughts to still think her parents hadn’t loved her enough. Her dad right now was proof of that.

“Yes. We’ll be fine. Now go find that ice witch.” 

“I’m on it. I’ll see if I can track down Hook and join him on the search.” he explained before placing a quick kiss to her forehead and heading out.

* * *

The call came in forty minutes later. They’d found her and had her trapped in the clock tower. Emma had dropped her brother off to her mom at the mayor’s office before racing to the station to grab the candle. 

They captured the queen and currently had her in the interrogation room. Ingrid had Emma alone and was trying her hardest to shake the sheriff, filling her head with details of the missing years from her childhood.

“You were their only child and they used you to break a curse. They’re still using your powers.”  
  
“That’s not true.”

“Isn’t it? How many times have you saved them? How often have you felt more like a “Saviour” than their daughter? And all it takes is one tiny mistake, one accident, and you and your powers go from being their salvation to their worst nightmare. “

“You don’t know them or me.” Emma threw back. Ingrid’s assumptions were making her angry. 

“I don’t have to know you, Emma. I’ve been you… Different, misunderstood, alone. And now they’ve chosen to have a new child. And don’t you think that they thank their lucky stars every day that he was born normal?”

Suddenly it clicked in Emma’s brain just what the Snow Queen was trying to do. She was using the emotional baggage from her childhood to try to alienate her, to turn her against her parents… she was trying to isolate her from her family. 

Emma’s anger began to turn to humour. She calmed as soon as the realisation sank in and she stopped pacing the room, instead she sat calmly opposite the snow queen and smiled.

“What you’re doing? What you’re trying to do? It’s not going to work. See, they love me. All of me.” The incident from earlier run fresh in her thoughts, spurring her on. “All you’ve got are memories of a lost little girl. But here’s the thing, dairy queen. I’m not that little girl anymore. I’ve grown up, I found my family, and they’ve shown me that powers or not I  _am_  loved. So whatever angle you’re aiming for here? It’s not gonna work.”  
  
“It’s only a matter of time, Emma.” Ingrid tried, slightly frustrated that her plan was backfiring. “They’ll turn on you eventually.”

The faint sound of banging at the station doors could be heard as Emma smiled at the rattled woman before her.

“We’ll see about that. Unless there’s anything else you want to throw out there before you’re escorted to your cell?”

Ingrid’s frustration became visible as she stood from her chair. Emma jumped up, prepared to fight back but the woman shook her wrists, ridding herself of the magical cuffs that were supposed to hold her. 

“I’m happy for you, Emma.” she offered sourly before disappearing in a cloud of frost.

A hoard of feet charged loudly through the station before the interrogation door flew open and David and Killian burst in.

“Swan! Are you alright?” 

“Yeah, i’m fine.” she assured them as Killian grabbed her into an embrace. “I’m better than fine.”

“Where’s the Snow Queen? She trapped you in here and we had to get Gold to open the door.” David explained, still on high alert for trouble.

“She’s gone. Turns out we hadn’t actually captured her, go figure. I don’t think we have to worry about her coming after me for a while, though.”

“What’d she do?”

“She just tried Darth Vadering me. Wouldn’t have worked. The ammo she had is long buried and i’m over it.” she smiled, feeling a lot freer than she had in a long time. 

“So what do we do now?” Elsa asked, still full of anxiety.

“Well, i’ve thwarted her plans for now… but there’s still the curse of shattered sight to worry about. I say we stick to what we’ve been doing and hope for a breakthrough.”

They filed out of the room and into the bull pen, Emma tucked into Killian’s side as David hovered nearby. Emma suddenly was struck with something she wanted.

“Hey, Dad? Can we have dinner tonight? At the loft? All of us.”

“Erm… sure. Any reason why?” he asked, confused at her request.

Emma shrugged. “I just want to have a night at home with a home cooked meal and my family and loved ones. That okay?”

“Of course.” He beamed. “I’ll let Snow know.”

“Great.” she turned to the pirate beside her. “You’re bringing the wine, Captain.” 

“I am?” 

“You’re better at choosing than I am.” she teased, knowing he was surprised to have been included in her family plans, but hoping the action itself would show he was a part of her family now. 


End file.
